Helsinki City Social Services Department faces massive budget overrun

Shortfall estimated at nearly EUR 36 million

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The Social Services Department of the City of Helsinki expects to overspend its budget by nearly 36 million euros this year.
      The head of the Social Services Department, Aulikki Kananoja, says that the department has not been able to stay on budget, because major cost cuts could not be implemented last year.
      Kananoja notes that more extensive cuts were planned for child day care than were realistic to carry out, in light of changes in the number of children that had to be served.
      This year the Social Services Department has been granted EUR 44.6 million less than it spent last year, when the budget was exceeded by EUR 26.8 million.
      In services for adults, the threatened cost overrun this year is EUR 18.9 million. In child day care the gap is EUR 12.7 million, in services for families with children it is EUR 3.9 million, and in support services it is just over EUR 2.1 million.
      Employment services seem to be more or less on budget, and a slight surplus is expected in services for senior citizens.
     
Income supplements account for nearly EUR 7.9 million of the budget for adult services, and services for the disabled cost over EUR 4.9 million.
      Spending on income supplements is always difficult to predict. "Nevertheless, we think that things went quite well in income supplements last year, even though there was an overrun of eight million. We are moving at the same level now as well. Fortunately there do not seem to be any great pressures for growth", Kananoja says.
      According to Kananoja, the Social Services Department is constantly making changes, but they cannot be implemented very quickly.
      "Is the goal itself unrealistic? The timetable certainly is. We would need about five years to be able to purposefully and systematically carry out the changes."
     
Staying on budget would require such massive cuts that they are not possible to carry out. The Social Services Department calculates that it would have to shut down all family day care services and park playground activities from June through the end of the year, and reduce the equivalent number of employees, or then cut day care services for 3,300 children and sack an equivalent number of personnel.
      In addition, contract services for institutional care for children would have to be cut by 25%, families receiving home daycare subsidies would have to be reduced by one third, and transport services for the disabled would have to be slashed by 60%.
      The Social Services Department is continuing its strategy of sustainable solutions, but their savings take time.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki playgrounds' free summer meals at stake yet again (7.4.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat